Microsoft continues to add new features to its Excel spreadsheet program. This week, the web version of Excel is getting a feature improvement, as it replaces its old "Automate a Task" button with the new "Automate Work" button.
However, this is not just a change in button labels. The official Excel blog post says that the new "Automate Work" button allows users of the app to access the company"s Power Automate features. In short, it can give users a way to take advantage of pre-built templates that should allow for the completion of certain tasks to be much faster.
Microsoft offered an example of how the new Automate Work button could be used in Excel on the web:
For instance, you can automatically capture customer feedback from emails and store it in an Excel for the web worksheet using the "Monitor incoming emails to an alias in an Excel worksheet" template. With this template, businesses can keep track of customer feedback in one centralized location, making it easy to respond to customer needs and improve customer satisfaction.
More info on how Power Automate features work with Excel can be found at this Microsoft support site.
At the moment, the new Automate Work button is just for the web version of Excel, and just for the use of commercial and education customers of Microsoft 365. However, the blog states that the feature will be added to the Windows and Mac versions of Excel sometime in the future.
Microsoft celebrated the 38th anniversary of the first version of Excel just a few days ago. In August, support for the popular Python coding language was added to Excel, followed by an experimental Python editor.
A few days ago, Microsoft added support for AutoComplete for dropdown lists for the Excel apps on iOS, Android, and Mac for Microsoft 365 Insider members.